Exam question 2 · Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes

Whereas a financial bulletin reports "a correction" in share prices, which of the following statements most accurately characterises the event?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: correction · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: event

This is exam question 2 of lesson 33 «Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	5 reports	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 reports	det
3	financial	financial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reports	amod
4	bulletin	bulletin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reports	compound
5	reports	report	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 characterises	obl
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	5 reports	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 correction	det
8	correction	correction	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 characterises	nsubj
9	"	"	PUNCT	_	8 correction	punct
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 prices	case
11	share	share	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 prices	compound
12	prices	price	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 correction	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 statements	punct
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 statements	nsubj
15	of	of	ADP	_	18 statements	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 statements	det
17	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	18 statements	amod
18	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 prices	conj
19	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	20 accurately	advmod
20	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	18 statements	advmod
21	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 event	det
23	event	event	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 characterises	obj
24	?	?	PUNCT	_	21 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a correction in share prices and the following statements	the event				whereas a financial bulletin reports	tree rules

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Errors in the published figures were rectified

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Errors	error	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 rectified	nsubj:pass
2	in	in	ADP	_	5 figures	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 figures	det
4	published	publish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 figures	amod
5	figures	figure	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Errors	nmod
6	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 rectified	aux:pass
7	rectified	rectify	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	publish	participle							vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	rectify	past · passive		Errors in the published figures					vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 2

Share prices rose to an unprecedented level

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 prices	compound
2	prices	price	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 rose	nsubj
3	rose	rise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 level	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 level	det
6	unprecedented	unprecedented	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 level	amod
7	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 rose	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	infinitive							tree rules
2	rise	past	Share prices			a unprecedented level			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to level=Initial_Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Share prices declined sharply

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Share	share	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	prices	price	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 declined	nsubj
3	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Share	ccomp
4	sharply	sharply	ADV	_	3 declined	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	imperative	you not said here						tree rules
2	decline	past	prices					sharply property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4

Trading was suspended for administrative reasons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Trading	trading	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 suspended	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 suspended	aux:pass
3	suspended	suspend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 reasons	case
5	administrative	administrative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 reasons	amod
6	reasons	reason	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 suspended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	suspend	past · passive		Trading				for administrative reasons	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/33-failure-and-mistakes/e2/